Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates generally to data communication systems and methods, and, more particularly to data communication systems and related methods and devices for data communication between electronic devices with serial data output and client devices with an audio port.
Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices such as medical devices and health-related monitoring devices with sensors and detectors (e.g. a pulse oximeter, a ventilator, an EKG device, or other health-related monitoring devices) are widely used for collecting or measuring medical and health index data such as Blood Glucose level, Blood Pressure, EKG, Cholesterol, Uric Acid and other vital information. Each one of these devices may produce its own set of data with its own format that must be compiled and analyzed and the measured data may be read and displayed on its display screen only. In order to record all of this vital information for further processing, the electronic devices need to communicate with a client device such as a computer system. Generally, the electronic devices may communicate with a client device through a serial port such as a RS-232 port, wherein each of the electronic devices may have a serial port to connect to the client device with the serial port and output its own set of data in a serial data form to the client device via the serial port. However, the client device may not be able to communicate with the various electronic devices because the client device's communication protocol may differ from that of the electronic device and some devices may not have a serial port corresponding to that of the electronic devices to connect to the electronic devices.
Therefore, a need exists for a system where an electronic device such as a medical device can communicate with a client device with or without a serial port for recording and analyzing patient information.